In-flight entertainment (IFE) systems are deployed onboard aircraft to provide entertainment for passengers in a passenger cabin. IFE systems typically provide passengers with television, movies, games, audio entertainment programming, and other electronic content.
IFE systems can provide video-on-demand services to passengers from a library of electronic content made available by the airline or an associated entity (i.e., a content service provider). Selection of content to be included or maintained within an IFE system can be a difficult but important process. Passenger satisfaction with a flight experience and, ultimately, with an airline can be significantly impacted by what content is made available through an IFE system.
Content is presently selected for IFE systems based on box office ratings, TV ratings, and “usage data” captured by IFE systems across a fleet of aircraft. Usage data indicates what content was used by passengers during earlier flights. Usage data can provide a relatively limited understanding of content usage, such as the number of times and duration content was viewed during various flights, and what particular content may be interesting to a particular passenger.
IFE systems are increasingly being used to provide an expanded set of services, beyond electronic content, to passengers. Existing IFE systems are unable to curate such content and services in a sufficiently user centric manner.